Friday, March 24, 2017

Former champions West Bengal and Goa will clash with each other for the coveted Santosh Trophy in the finals of the football tournament on Sunday. In the Semifinals yesterday West Bengal prevailed over Mizoram 6-5 via sudden death while hosts Goa beat Kerala 2-1 in the second semi-finals.

Bengal and Mizoram failed to break the deadlock in the regulation and extra time and the match went into penalty shootout, which also locked the teams at 4-4. 31 time winner of the trophy, Bengal emerged victorious and made to the final for the 44th time after Moirangthem Basanta found the net and Lalbiakhlua’s shot was saved by Sankar Roy.

In second semifinal, Goa warded off a stiff second half challenge from Kerala to emerge 2-1 winners. Goa dominated the first half and scored both the goals through Liston Colaco in the 13th and 36th minute. Kerala dominated the second half, pulled one back in the 61st minute through Rahul V Raj. Five times champions Goa thus entered the finals for the 13th time.

National chopper operator Pawan Hans is set to launch its “Delhi Darshan” rides from first April. At the inauguration of its first helipad in North Delhi’s Rohini area, the Chairman and Managing Director of the company announced the roll out of Delhi Darshan rides. An initial ride is planned for tomorrow and the day after and the regular Delhi Darshan will commence from next Saturday.

Through this ride the visitors can experience the breathtaking beauty through aerial view of Pritampura Tower, Majnu Ka Tila, Red Fort, Rajghat, Akshardham Temple and surrounding areas by paying about 5,000 rupees for a 20 minute ride and about 2,500 rupees for a ten minute ride. Built at a cost of 100 crore rupees the Rohini facility will also be useful in providing medical emergency, public safety and enhancing tourism.

Food Tank has compiled 17 books to educate, inform, and inspire us this season. Whether you’re looking to dip your toes into the world of modern, sustainable agriculture or searching for a new hobby—like making cheese with no dairy—these books about food, agriculture, and sustainability offer something for everyone. Including both seasoned and new authors, writing about health, food, the environment, and the intersection of all three, we hope you find inspiration this Spring through these 17 reads.Spotlighted books include (in alphabetical order by title):

We, a group of bank consumers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are disturbed at the unfair treatment that bank customers suffer in the form of frequent, arbitrary and one-sided increase in banking charges, or the refusal of banks to automatically pass on contractual benefits such as lower interest to those with floating rate home loans, or the rampant mis-sellling of third-party products such as insurance.

The attached memorandum is the consensus view of a group of knowledgeable consumer activists, policy watchers, bankers, and trade unions, request urgent policy changes to ensure that banks treat bank customers fairly.

Dr Patel, we are confident you will have the memorandum examined and initiate action at the earliest. We look forward to active engagement and a line of acknowledgement from your office

Memorandum

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the banking regulator has been proactive in improving the customer service rendered by banks. However, the RBI has not taken banks to task on the many customer-unfriendly practices that are increasing with impunity.

Over the years, the RBI has remained silent on several anti-depositor actions of banks. The Banking Ombudsman’s rulings also tend to side with banks, making no attempt to observe the pattern of complaints which would amply bring out rampant mis-selling of insurance and wealth management products. We have identified some specific areas and request RBI’s intervention to take corrective steps after engaging with customers.

1. Digital Payments: While the Union Government is pushing consumers into digital transactions, we are not adopting global best practices to protect consumers. On 11 August 2016 (https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/bs_viewcontent.aspx?Id=3235) the RBI issued a draft circular on limiting customer liability and shifting the onus of proving customer fault on banks. RBI had sought feedback from public before 31 August 2016. However, it has not yet been converted into a Master Circular.

We feel that with the increased use of digital payments post the demonetisation drive, it is necessary to have in place a mechanism or system to protect customers from unauthorised banking transactions. A Master circular/notification by the Reserve Bank on limiting liability in an unauthorised banking transaction will make a huge impact on protecting customers from frauds.

2. Bank Account Number Portability: We feel effective portability of bank accounts is a good anti-dote to several restrictive practices followed by the banks. This has been successfully implemented in the telecom sector and helped consumers. No practical portability option exists at present due to tie in primarily due to standing instructions for both incomes (pensions, annuities, dividends, interest) and expenses (utilities etc.) and the difficulties associated with changing those standing instructions.

Portability of loan exists on paper, but has to be made easier and seamless to execute without imposing fiscal and non-fiscal burden on the consumer.

The Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana now provides interest subsidy to loan taken by eligible households. Allowing lenders to overcharge for such loan consumers is allowing them to appropriate this subsidy provided from taxpayers’ funds. It is the duty of the government and regulators to ensure that the lenders do not appropriate this taxpayers’ money by overcharging the borrowers and create barriers when the borrower wants to shift this loan.

3. Unfair agreements: Banks cannot have one-sided terms and conditions in their agreements with consumers. One-sided loan agreements with details buried in the fine print are bleeding customers. The Reserve Bank, in its communication must be specific about barring the levy of unfair charges otherwise bankers take undue advantage and fleece consumers. A basic model agreement must be prescribed by the RBI to limit banks from harming customers.

4. Charges: Frequent increase in charges and billing customers by stealth through opt-out clauses that are not noticeable must be stopped immediately. For e.g. HDFC Bank started levying charges for an invite only program, which unethically assumes that the customer is already in and willing to pay for it. The levy is stopped only when the consumer notices it and calls the bank to protest, this too is not an easy process.

5. Faulty Systems: Wrong emails being tagged by faulty algorithms of banks and finance companies, are leading to emails being sent to people who have no borrowing or accounts. This is a serious issue that will affect people’s credit history; the use of such faulty algorithms and defeats the purpose of KYC and causes serious harassment.

6. Master Circular Changes: Frequent changes in the Master Circular or Notifications by RBI require banks to make changes in their Core Banking Systems. This leads to high IT costs, which are ultimately passed on to consumers. The RBI must restrict changes in its circulars to 4 times a year to keep costs in check.

7. Consumer Charter: The RBI issued the Charter of Customer Rights on 3 December 2014 recognising five basic rights of bank customers and asks banks to adapt and implement it after their Board’s approval. These are: (i) Right to Fair Treatment; (ii) Right to Transparency; Fair and Honest Dealing; (iii) Right to Suitability; (iv) Right to Privacy; and (v) Right to Grievance Redress and Compensation.

The Charter covers almost every problem that consumers were likely to face. Three years later, the RBI has not fixed timeframes for grievance redressal nor announced penalties for failure to treat consumers fairly, despite repeated appeals by consumer groups. Consequently, the Charter remains a toothless statement.

A Master circular/notification by the Reserve Bank giving teeth to the Charter of Customer Rights with clear provisions fixing timelines for redressal and escalation, penalty for negligent service and interest/compensation to customers for losses caused due to mis-selling is urgently needed.

The film documents human trafficking across 13 countries including Brazil, Cambodia, Ghana and India, and focuses on multiple forms of modern slavery, such as forced labour and sex trafficking.

“Trafficking is a huge issue globally, and is a $120 billion industry. The film seeks to stir people into thinking what we as human beings are doing to each other. It hurts me to see that as thinking human beings we allow such travesties to happen. Instead of being self-consumed, we should think about those around us,”said Pandey, reflecting on the issues raised in the film

The festival is being held at the Arts Faculty, University of Delhi on March 24-25, and at the FTK-CIT Conference Hall, Jamia Millia Islamia on March 27. Exploring issues of marginalization, police excesses and injustice through the lens of cinema, the festival will feature nearly a dozen documentaries from India and abroad, including ‘Candles in the Wind’ by Kavita Bahl and Nandan Saxena, ‘Le Cas Pinochet’ (The Pinochet Case) by

CHRI is hosting this initiative in collaboration with the Centre for Violence, Memory and Trauma (CSVMT), University of Delhi, and Department of English and Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research, Jamia Millia Islamia.